ELIMINATION OF BONDED LABOUR AND CHILD LABOUR SYSTEMS Chapter - 7 A. Bonded Labour System 7.1 The right against exploitation is enshrined in Article 23 of the Constitution of India. The Article prohibits traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour. The system of forced or bonded labour essentially represents the relationship between a creditor and a debtor under which a debtor agrees to render service to the creditor from whom obligations, whether in kind or money, have been taken. Though the system was deeply embedded in a feudal and semi-feudal social structure of the past, it continues to exist in India even today in diverse forms. Earlier too, the bonded labour was known by different names in different parts of the country such as kamiya, harwah, gothi or jeeta or jeetam or sagri. Its perpetuation, to a large extent, was accentuated by the uneven social structure and iniquitous social system. The problem of bonded labour is closely linked to other factors as well, such as, surplus labour, unemployment/ underemployment, low wages, distress migration, antiquated social customs, poor implementation of tenurial land reforms, tribal land alienation, illiteracy and indebtedness. 7.2 In order to deal with the problem of bonded labour system in the country, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act (BLSA Act) was enacted in the year 1976. The salient features of this Act are as under:• on commencement of the Act the bonded labour system shall stand abolished and every bonded labourer shall stand freed and discharged from any obligation to render bonded labour; • any custom, agreement or other instrument by virtue of which a person is required to render any service as a bonded labourer shall be void; • liability to repay bonded debt shall be deemed to have been extinguished; • property of the bonded labourer is required to be freed from mortgage, etc; • freed bonded labourers shall not be evicted from homestead land or other residential premises which she/he was occupying as part of consideration for the bonded labour; • District Magistrates have been entrusted with certain duties and responsibilities for implementing the various provisions of the Act; • Vigilance Committees are required to be constituted at District and Sub-Divisional levels; 93